Egyptian startup Opio,a direct to consumer everyday women’s wear brand,has secured $300,000 in seed funding to expand its operations.
Opio launched as a digital native vertical in 2017, founded by Shady Mokhtar and Reem Abdellaftif to capitalize on the long-abandoned Egyptian apparel industry and the growth in online shopping demand. The platform licenses several manufacturers to produce white label and toll manufacturing women’s wear apparel, which it then sells to its customer base via its digital platform.
Following the close of its US$300,000 seed round, the firm plans to grow its services and scale of operations, with funding from AUC Angels, local and regional angel investors, as well as follow-on funding from Flat6Labs Cairo. Last year, Opio took part in the Flat6Labs accelerator program.
“We’ve proven that we can develop a value proposition that can easily compete with international brands. Egypt is full of design and creative talent. Backing this up by relentless focus on customer experience we are confident that we can easily add a strong mark on the local and regional online fashion market,” said Abdellaftif, who is Opio’s creative director.
Opio has been particularly attentive to market trends, according to Mariam Kamel, manager at AUC Angels, both in terms of how it communicates with its customers and how it reacts to changes produced by recent improvements in the digitization of the shopping experience.
“They’ve revised their business plan when they’ve needed to, and established key partnerships where it was beneficial. Shady and his team move fast, and always have news to share on what’s coming next,” she said.